Jamie Galbraith on debt ceiling theater:
Instead of this, what do we have, from a President who claims to be a member of the Democratic Party? First, there is the claim that we face a fiscal crisis, which is a big untruth. Second, a concession in principle that we should deal with that crisis by enacting massive cuts in public services on one hand and in vital social insurance programs on the other. This is an arbitrary cruelty. Third, a refusal to stand on the strong ground of the Constitution, against those whose open and declared purpose is tear that document and the public credit to shreds.
In the Daily Beast on Sunday, Howard Kurtz wrote in optimistic terms of the prospects for a deficit bargain: “But away from the cameras, even sharp-tongued politicians recognize the imperative of avoiding the fate of Greece. It is a sign of the times that the Kabuki players of Washington may take a bow simply for averting catastrophe.”
Kurtz did not say that the big Kabuki here was his own notion that somehow the United States might face the fate of Greece – a small and overmatched member of a currency zone it cannot control. He did not say that the catastrophe he fears – a default on US government obligations – was entirely the product of treacherous politics, abetted by an irresolute President who seems not to grasp the danger of allowing the Constitution to fail.
And he did not say, that the deal he would applaud, with cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and all the legitimate and necessary functions of government — would be for millions of Americans the catastrophe itself.
Also, Dean Baker.
I am starting to thing of Mr Obama as “the Last President of the United States as We Have Known It” He is doing all he can to cooperate with the movement to end and reverse all the progress made in America since the beginning of the Progressive movement in the 1890’s.
And at least Kabuki is a classical dramatic art that we only make fun of because it comes from another culture. What we are seeing in Washington is more like “Big Time Wrestling” in which the whole battle is scripted and everybody is working together for a pre-determined outcome and the referees are all in on the scam.
pragmatic, of course it’s all a scam. Using my feeble google-fu powers, I found that Senator Barack Obama voted against raising the debt ceiling in 2006.
I’m sure he feels badly about that now, or he would if anyone brought it up, which I’ve noticed they haven’t. If I were to guess, I’d say that Obama and Boehner had a deal sewn up on the golf course. Cantor made a big fuss about it and said disrepectful things to the President. So Obama and Boehner (who doesn’t like it that Cantor is trying to take away his power) did an end-around and let McConnell make the announcement.
Everybody knows that Wall Street is putting big pressure on republicans to pass the debt ceiling, so the only question is how they can do this and save face.